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Main Character Monday – Rosemary Gresham

Welcome to Main Character Monday. Today’s guest is Rosemary Gresham from A Name Unknown by Roseanna M. White. Thank you for joining me Rosemary.

If you could choose only one thing to buy without money being an issue, what would you buy?

Are you teasing me? I can’t even fathom such a world, but if you’re going to get my imagination going…it would be a house big enough hold all the family, all in the same place. With closets filled with clothes and shoes and coats for all of them, and a pantry stocked with food. That counts as one thing, doesn’t it?

I’m not sure that fits the “one thing” criteria, but since it’s a self-less wish, I’ll let it stand. The New Testament tells the story of two sisters who react to Jesus visiting in very different ways. Mary chooses to spend her time with him, while Martha chooses to see to the physical details of his visit. Are you more a Mary or Martha?

I had never heard that story until recently…but I know sisters well enough! In my family, though, it’s not a question of which one we are—it’s a matter of which one we have to be. I think we all have to play the Martha role most, just to make sure there’s food on the table and clothes on the little ones’ backs. We have to attend the details or the details don’t get attended. But we steal what Mary moments we can. Willa has her music. Retta her books. Me…well, now that you mention it, maybe I haven’t found the time to be a Mary much at all recently. I suppose the closest I come is when I take a moment to cuddle with the little ones. Minutes that are far too few as we’re all scrabbling about for our next meal—or our next score.

I can see how it’s important for you and your sisters to be like Martha, but I hope in the future you get to enjoy some Mary time. “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27 – Do you think this verse, lived out would have made a difference in your life? If so, how?

Well now you’ve made my eyes go a bit teary. In all my life, I’ve never met anyone who lived that out—until Peter. If I had…I can’t even imagine what could have been different. Perhaps we wouldn’t have had to learn to steal just to survive. Perhaps we wouldn’t have had to run every time we saw an adult turning our way. Perhaps we could have remained unspotted, if someone had shown us such care. As it is, our only recourse had been to take in what other orphans we could, and try to keep them secure from the world. We never would have called it religion, though. We just called it love.

I’m sorry it’s taken so long for you to find someone who exemplifies that type of faith. Just imagine if everyone who believes practiced that kind of love. What scripture verse would you claim as a life verse?

That would have to be Ephesians 5:8

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…”

Anyone who knows me well knows that I’ve always been afraid of darkness. I never realized that I feared it because it had become a part of me…or that I could embrace the Light instead. Discovering that…well, that changes everything, doesn’t it?

Yes, it does. If there was one message you could give those reading this interview, what would that be?

Never assume. Never assume you know a person just because of how they dress or even what they say. Never assume there’s no other way. Never assume there’s nothing you can do.

Great advice for all of us to follow.

Just for Fun:

Indoors or outdoors: Outdoors! Especially after a few suffocating hours in that cave of a room Peter tries to call a library…

Reading or writing: Oh, reading. I’ll leave the writing to other certain people who shall remain nameless…(ahem, Branok Hollow)

Apples or pears: This one made me laugh. “Apples and pears” is part of rhyming slang in my neighborhood, meaning “stairs.” But if you’re meaning the actual fruits—I’d go with apples.

Early bird or night owl: Give me the morning any time!

Rosemary, please describe Roseanna M. White in three words.

Oh, let’s see. From what I’ve been able to glean about her, she has a bit in common with Peter, living in an imaginary world as she does. I’d say optimistic, creative, and absentminded—that last one being the one she shares with him most.

Thanks to Rosemary Gresham for joining me today. I really enjoyed interviewing you! If you’d like to get to know Rosemary better, you can get your own copy of A Name Unknown by Roseanna M. White from Amazon in paperback, hardcover, e-book, and Audible Audiobook formats.